Chocoholics Book Review: Chocolate Therapy, by Murray Langham

 When Souvenir Press approached me and asked if I would like to review a book all about one of my favourite delights, of course I jumped at the chance.

The book “Chocolate Therapy, Unwrap the Secrets of your Inner Self” by Murray Langham.

Description:

What sort of chocolates do you like? Do you prefer dark or light chocolate? Do you always go for the square ones? Are their centres hard or soft, nutty or marsh- mallow? And afterwards, what do you do with the wrapper: roll it into a tube, or turn it into a masterpiece of origami? What does all this reveal about your personality? Did you know that the shapes and centres that attract you – and how you play with the wrapper – may be a guide to your inner self? In this highly original book, Murray Langham, therapist, counsellor and facilitator, celebrates chocolate in terms that will intrigue you and entertain those with whom you share its revelations. Unwrap the secrets of your inner self! Once you do, life will begin anew and magical transformations take place.

My Thoughts:

This book is all about the type of chocolate that you like best, the shape of chocolate that you go for and the centres. Each answer that you give reads a psychologically chocolatey answer about your personality, its all just a bit of delectable fun, and if you are with friends or family and have chocolate at hand its entertaining and fun.

I did the quiz with my family and we each chose different answers. It was great fun and combined with the photos of chocolate and all the chocolate talk, it was lucky I had a bar or two in my stash. (I’m always prepared with chocolate!) ♥

I asked my Husband, Mum, Nanna, Brother and my Sister in Law and of course myself each question about what we prefer. Our answers of favourite fillings ranged from Orange to Turkish Delight to Coconut, and then we chose the shapes that we go for whether it be square, circle, spiral etc. We each had an answer to define our personality! Are you intrigued yet?……

 

The book is fun, entertaining and I would say not to be given any great depth of thought, for example, if your favourite centre was Turkish Delight you would be the type of person who likes to meditate, allowing your mind to be creative, in tune and balanced. I can see where the Author was going with this with the Eastern theme to it. 

I didn’t take anything literally from this book, but I would certainly recommend it to all chocoholics out there as a fun gift or dinner party entertainer. For the evening I spent with my family and this book, we had a great time. For that I give thanks to the publishers Souvenir Press, the Author Murray Langham and of course my wonderful family. ♥

 

My Marvellous Melting Message Spoon.

CHOCOLATE POST HERE!!!  ♥

This was a birthday gift that I got from my brother. It is called a Marvellous Melting Message Spoon. It is a silver spoon with a huge delicious hunk of chocolate on the end and a personalised message hidden under the chocolate.

The instructions said to stir into warm milk, let the chocolate melt and the secret message will be revealed. Well, what a fab gift! I love hot chocolate, I love the big hunk of chocolate on the end and then a secret personalised message. I was looking forward to using it, and also thought I would love to share the experience with my readers.

So, I set it all up. Warmed the milk, got my plate ready. Another little surprise when I opened it up was that it came with a little miniature spoon which is very cute.

So, I dipped it in the milk and enjoyed the rich taste as the chocolate melted. I didn’t really give it a chance to melt into the milk as I preferred to eat the melted chocolate off the spoon itself. Yum!

So, as it melted and as I enjoyed I was thinking what is the message going to be??

The secret personalised message said ‘Flossy’. This is the name that my Dad used to call me when I was young. My brother occasionally calls me this now. Our Dad died 12 years ago when I was 26. So, this was a really nice message for me to read.Now I have a lovely silver spoon personalised to me. The spoon is nice and long and I think will be perfect for ice cream sundays, or tall hot chocolate drinks.

So, thanks to my brother and his partner, the gift was a really good idea and much appreciated.

If anyone is interested in getting one of these, the packaging said ‘not on the high street’. I guess an online company. If anyone is really interested, leave a comment below and I will ask my bro where he got it from.

Thanks for reading, see you next time.

 

The Good Food Show, Glasgow SECC.

The Good Food Show, Glasgow SECC.

Friday October 17th 2014.

What a fabulous day. I go to this event every year. Today is the first day I will blog about my experiences there.

There were so many delicious food and drink companies there, all offering great samples and products to buy. Lots of the companies had special deals if you bought on the day, so it was the perfect time to stock up on my Christmas gifts. Of course I had to get a few treats for myself too.   

It was very busy, lots of enthusiastic foodies there. I was definitely one of them, I love free samples, I love trying new foodie things and I love a bargain. This show has all of those things.

There were lots of cheese companies, oils, dips, curries, chocolate, cooking utensils and many more. Fantastic.

There were quite a few Scottish companies there too promoting their wares. One of my favourites was Piper’s. They had Scottish fudge, Scottish pakora’s and of course the Scottish Empire biscuit. Their people were very friendly handing out their samples dressed in their kilts.

I am happy to say that there were lots of free from companies there too. One that I quite liked was http://www.punjaban.co.uk. They were selling curry sauces that seemed to be free from everything, so much that you would think it would be tasteless, but they were delicious.

I spoke to a lady who said that today is their very first day selling their products!! Their products were fantastic.  http://www.vomfassuk.com  The product that I liked the best was a vodka that was in a bottle in the shape of a shoe, and it had real gold flakes inside! If you shake the bottle up, it goes all sparkly and fabulous. You could also have the bottles personalised for gifts.

Of course, you couldn’t expect me to go to a food show without mentioning chocolate!!

http://www.seedandbean.co.uk are AMAZING! Totally fairtrade and organic, they had the most delicious and unique flavours.

chilli and lime / lavender / mandarin and ginger / sea salt and lime / lemon and poppy seed.

Another big reason to go to The Good Food Show is Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood! I had a super theatre ticket to see the two of them cooking and chatting on stage. Paul made a lamb pie, then Mary made a lemon posset and Paul made some pistachio shortbread biscuits to go with the posset. They had a great chemistry with each other on stage, and it really was fabulous to watch them.

There was an interview stage with a fab line up. So in between all your sampling and shopping, you could sit and relax and listen to these lovely people be interviewed and ask take audience questions.

Paul Hollywood was very kindly doing a book signing after his interview.

I had a fantastic day, bought myself some lovely treats as and also got a few Christmas gifts. I wish it came to Scotland more than once a year. I will most certainly be back again next year.

If you love food and drink, trying new things and meeting chefs, I highly recommend you visit The Good Food Show. They also come to London and Birmingham.

Did you go to the show? What did you think and who was your favourite?

 

Some Chocolatey Things I have made.

As you know, I am a true chocolate lover. But I also love to bake, so I combine my two loves, and bake lots of chocolate goodies. Here are a few that I have made.Apricot Crunchy Cakes. These were a bit of a trial experiment, it was fridge cake with added dried apricots. They turned out delicious and were all finished in a few days. I do share my bakes with family! I have to, otherwise I would totally balloon up.  😉

I have also made Salty Crunchy Cake which is a personal favourite of mine. This has peanuts and Cadbury Crunchy in it. I know some people don’t do sweet and salty together, but I just love it. I I were to recommend any of my bakes, this would be the top recommendation.

Another special recipe invention came when I had so many boxes of chocolates given to me at Christmas time. (I’m not complaining, perfect gift for me!). So I decided to try making chocolate cupcakes with an added chocolate inside. These worked a treat, the chocolate inside stayed soft and goey, so when you bit inside the melted chocolate just oozed out. Just perfect, I used all different kinds of chocolates to put inside. orange creams, caramel chocolates, fudge – they all worked. At Easter time, this can be substituted with all kinds of mini eggs, caramel, cream eggs. Delicious.

I thought I would share just a few of my chocolatey bakes, I have many more to follow.

If you would like recipes of any of the above, feel free to contact me. They really are very easy and so delicious.

For all you chocaholics out there, until next time Goodbye.

 

A Chocoholics Post!!

My blog`s name `ChocolatePages` was chosen because I just love chocolate. I am the ultimate chocaholic, so I want to scatter my page with my love!!!!
Chocolate is a treat, luxury, comfort and a celebration.
Enjoy it freely, too many people feel a guilt with it.
I intend to add more chocolatey images and quotes, so keep watching…….